Pain Medicine Longitudinal Assessment

Beginning in 2024, if you hold a Certificate of Added Qualification (CAQ) in Pain Medicine, you will transition to the Longitudinal Assessment – Pain Medicine (LA-PM). If you gain initial certification or regain certification in Pain Medicine in 2023 or after, you will begin LA-PM participation in the year following your successful one-day exam.

Going forward, you can expect to begin a new cycle of LA-PM every five years to maintain your Pain Medicine CAQ.

As a participating physician, you will complete up to 15 questions each quarter over five years. Clinical references are not to be used during the exam and you have one minute to complete each question. Immediate feedback is provided, and you choose the time and location that’s convenient for you. You’ll remain certified throughout your participation as long as you meet other ABFM requirements.

How It Works

• You will begin in the first quarter of 2024 or the year after your initial successful one-day exam.
• You will answer up to 15 (one minute) questions each quarter for five years.
• If performance at the end of your summative year is sufficient to reach the minimum passing standard, a new five-year cycle begins the following year and certification continues.
• Questions can be answered in one or multiple sessions within the quarter.
• Questions that are not viewed during a quarter will remain available to be answered throughout the calendar year they were originally released. These questions can be answered during other quarters within the year but note that the maximum number of questions that can be answered on a single day is 15. Questions that are not viewed by December 31 of the year they were originally released will be counted incorrect.
• Immediate feedback and critiques are provided for each question answered.
• Quarterly performance summaries will be available at the end of the first year, so you can continually assess your performance and identify focused areas for future study.
• You may review all answered questions in the “Review” section of the LA-PM dashboard.
• Results will be provided following the end of the summative year.

LA-PM covers knowledge and clinical judgement in aspects of pain medicine required to demonstrate at a high level of competence. For more information, please visit www.theaba.org.

Eligibility Requirements

You are eligible if you are an…

• ABFM Diplomate who is maintaining certiication in Pain Medicine.
• ABFM Diplomate who gained initial certification or regained certification in Pain Medicine the previous year.

You are not eligible if you are a(n)…

• ABFM Diplomate pursuing initial certification in Pain Medicine.
• ABFM Diplomate whose certification in Pain Medicine has lapsed.
• Physician who is not certified in family medicine by ABFM.

Application Information

To participate in LA-PM, you must complete an application to be reviewed and approved by ABFM, just as you have previously done for the one-day exam. There is no additional cost for LA-PM compared to the one-day exam. The online application can be accessed in your MyABFM Portfolio during the open application period. Visit the Pain Medicine Important Dates page to review application deadlines.

ABFM provides reasonable accommodations in accordance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). More information regarding accommodations can be found in the Candidate Information Booklet. If necessary, you may request accommodations after the application process is completed by submitting a written request to [email protected].

Candidate Information Booklet

To assist you with the Pain Medicine application and results process, ABFM provides you with a Candidate Information Booklet that includes a comprehensive description of our requirements and policies. We recommend that you read this thoroughly before beginning the application process.

2024

Online Application Details

In 2024, currently certified physicians whose last successful Pain Medicine one-day examination was in 2014 are to enroll in the program through the online application process. As this is the first cohort of continuing certification candidates to transition to this program, the summative year will be delayed to 2025 to allow time to acclimate to this new assessment format.

Physicians who successfully sat for the initial certification or continuing certification one-day Pain Medicine examination in 2023 are required to begin participating in longitudinal assessment in 2024. This group must also complete the online application process.

Physicians whose last successful examination was between 2015 – 2022 will be automatically enrolled in longitudinal assessment, but will not be required to complete an online application until the year their 10-year examination requirement is due.

Participation Guidelines

While participating in LA-PM, you will receive up to 15 (one minute) questions each quarter that can be answered in one or multiple sessions.

The table below lists the begin and end dates for each quarter:

The assessment is delivered over five years. Completing the assessment and achieving a passing score will satisfy your exam requirement and enable you to maintain your CAQ in Pain Medicine.

Summative and Formative Participation Years

It is important for all physicians enrolled in LA-PM to understand the difference between summative and formative participation years. In formative years, the score you achieve by the end of the year, while helpful for assessing your knowledge, does not impact your certification status. In your summative year, the score you achieve by the end of the year will determine whether you remain certified in Pain Medicine. Note that the calculation of the score you receive in your summative year will only include the questions that were delivered in that year. ABA does a rolling calculation that only includes the last 60 available questions.

Ongoing Requirements

To remain enrolled in LA-PM, you must submit the annual CAQ certification fees and continuously maintain your family medicine certification. If you do not meet these requirements, you will be removed from LA-PM and lose certification in Pain Medicine. Once removed, you are required to pass the one-day exam to regain certification in Pain Medicine.

Scoring and Performance Feedback

Scoring

Questions that are viewed and answered will be counted as correct or incorrect.  Questions that are viewed but not answered will be counted as incorrect.

Questions that are not viewed during a quarter will remain available to be answered throughout the year they were released. These questions can be answered anytime during the year, but note that a maximum of 15 questions can be answered in a single day. Questions that are not viewed by December 31 of the year they were released will be counted as incorrect.

Immediate Feedback

After each question, you will receive an immediate response indicating whether the answer is correct or incorrect, a critique that explains the evidence for the correct answer, and rationale for the incorrect answers. You will also have an opportunity to provide feedback about the question that only ABA will see.

Ongoing Feedback

ABA will provide an overview of your ongoing performance through the LA-PM platform.

Final Score

At the end of your summative year, your final score will be calculated to determine if you met the minimum passing standard. A summative decision will then be made regarding your assessment based on your final p-value calculation. Note that the calculation of the score you receive at the end of your summative year will only include the questions that were delivered in that year. ABA does a rolling calculation that only includes the last 60 available questions. For further details about ABA’s scoring methodology, please visit: https://www.theaba.org/maintain-certification/moca-minute/.